Dear Hermana and Elder Hughes,
The more I am in the Philippines, the more my admiration for
you missionaries increases. This week I
learned a lot about missionary work.
Last week during Halloween/All Souls Day holiday the missionaries had to
be in three hours earlier than usual --by 6pm.
Those two evenings are POWER SCRUB in our mission--the missionaries deep
clean their apartments, and then in the following days the senior couples inspect
the apartments (about 88 of them) and the zone with the cleanest apartments
gets a free lunch. I didn't do any inspections, but Dad and the other senior
couples did. They reported that some
missionaries don't have running water, sinks that work and one apartment of
four elders doesn't have a working toilet.
How do they survive? (They live by the church, so they most stop by when
they're in the neighborhood!) Most apartments don't have hot water, there is
often so little water pressure they use buckets to shower, and one doesn't have
electricity, just a long extension cord to the neighbors. Yet the missionaries
don't complain--only the inspections revealed these problems!
Yesterday afternoon there was a terrific thunderstorm and I
thought maybe it was a hurricane, it was blowing and lightening so much! I asked the sisters today if they were out in
it and they just laughed and said, "Yes, and we got so wet!" I feel
like these sisters are like the women in the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi 17:2
Teaching with the missionaries.
Friday night I went with two of our powerful sister leaders
to teach. The first two lessons were in
modest, clean homes, but the third one was like hiking down Dry Canyon in the
rain: steep, rocky, winding path down an
alley with twists and turns, slippery and muddy and a little scary in the
dark. The house at the end where the
investigators live was just a shack with corrugated roof and thin wooden
walls. An umbrella was rigged to cover
some clothes out 'drying". The
family was not home (that's called "punted" here), so the hike back
up was a little discouraging, but the sisters were not at all disheartened and
we set off for the next appointment.
Monday we took a p-day and went to one of the local malls to
"get steps' (it's not safe to walk, except in our subdivision and only
before 7am because of the heat) and go to lunch. That night Elder Abad, a Filipino elder who's
been in our mission for 15 weeks waiting for his visa to Peru, came and stayed
at the mission home. He was amazed at
the luxury we live in compared to the missionaries. The minute he came in the door, he said,
"This is like a temple!" He was too excited and nervous to sleep,
anticipating his first airplane ride and finally arriving in the mission he was
called to.
Tuesday began our second week of zone interviews and that
night two more missionaries returned home, including Elder English, who's
served as one of Dad's assistants and who extended three weeks. He came to dinner with the other assistants
and some other missionaries and we had a delicious Filipino dinner, cooked by
our helper, Ann. It felt super weird to
be having guests but not doing the cooking.
But she left in time for me to do the dishes, so I felt better.
Wednesday we went to Baliwag to interview the elders in the
farthest-away zone. I was shocked at the
transformation of one of our new sisters, Sister Calapini. When we visited there six weeks ago she was a
new missionary of only three weeks. She
told me if her mom knew she was in such a dirty, ugly place she would have her
come home. She complained to me about
her companion, the members and the other missionaries. She texted Dad after we left that he was
unfair and judgmental. When we talked
with her Wednesday she seemed like a different person. She praised her companion and the members and
said she loved the area and wants to stay there. She testified about reading Preach My Gospel
and the Book of Mormon each for 30 minutes a day and smiled and laughed. In her interview, she apologized to Dad for
being rude and said she was so happy being a missionary. I could hardly believe how different she is!
Dad with the missionaries.
Yesterday Dad met with some missionaries for a meeting in
the morning and went with a stake president and a bishop to visit some less
actives in the afternoon. He is really
doing a great job of earning the trust of the stake presidents. In our stake conference today a different
stake president praised his inspiration in implementing the "blitz"
in their stake, where missionaries and members go together on a Saturday to
find the less active and find new investigators in the process.
Tonight we went to a fireside in the most dangerous place in
metro-Manila where we have six elders working.
Dad took his huge wooden spoon and told the story of heaven and hell and
how the members and missionaries need to work together. The members seem to be supporting the
missionaries more and more, and their help is invaluable, as you know. Friday nights lessons with the sisters were
with a part-member family and with a 16-year old who'd been introduced to the
church by her schoolmate.
Sister Cole and Sister Morris attended their ward for the
second time and were asked to teach Relief Society. Sister Cole said, "What's the
date?" and the bishop said,
"Today! Right after Sunday school!"
She asked if the Church is like that in Chile and Santiago, too? They continue to be amazed by the way people
live here and Sister Cole keeps saying, "I can't believe how spoiled I
am!"
Thanks for your sacrifices to be missionaries! They may be different from here in the
Philippines, but they are real. And I
appreciate you and admire you!
Love,
Mom
We've noticed that the Filipinos don't like raw vegetables. They don't eat salad. Sister West fixed the missionaries in her
zone lunch, and told them they had to eat a carrot strip first. One sister took a bite and said, "But
it's not cooked!" and couldn't finish it.
She saw an elder slide it into his back pocket! They have vegetables in their ulams (the
sauce over rice), but not separately and NEVER raw.
Elder and Sister West (senior couple hero).
Riding to the district (caribou).
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